Latest news with #planetarygeologist
ABC News
19 hours ago
- Science
- ABC News
Hunt continues for meteorite in regional Victoria
The hunt for a meteorite which light up skies across Victoria on Sunday night is continuing. It caused what's been described as a sonic boom that rattled houses across the state and is now believed to be the size of a football, weighing about a kilo and a half. ABC News Radio's Sarah Morice spoke with Monash University planetary geologist Rachel Kirby who is searching in Victoria's west.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Science
- The Guardian
Tiny fireball that crashed into Georgia home is 4.56bn-year-old meteorite, say experts
A cherry tomato-sized fireball that crashed through the roof of a metro Atlanta house in June was a meteorite 20m years older than Earth, a scientist has determined. In a news release on Friday, University of Georgia planetary geologist Scott Harris said that he arrived at that conclusion after examining 23 grams of fragments from a meteorite that were provided to him after the space rock pierced a man's home and dented its floor in the Henry county community of McDonough. Harris subsequently looked at the fragments under microscopes and established that they came from a meteorite which formed 4.56bn years earlier. Experts estimate the Earth is roughly 4.54bn years old. 'This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,' Harris said in the news release. He explained the space rock belonged to a group of asteroids 'in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470m years ago'. According to Harris, the homeowner reported to him that he has continued finding space dust specks around his living room from the asteroid strike. Harris said he, his fellow University of Georgia scientists and colleagues at Arizona State University intend to submit their findings to the Meteorological Society's nomenclature committee, which oversees naming new meteorites. Harris said his team has proposed to name its subject the McDonough Meteorite. The University of Georgia said the meteorite studied by Harris and his colleagues was the 27th recovered in the history of the state, which was founded in 1788. It was among six meteorites in that group whose fall was witnessed. 'This is something that used to be expected once every few decades and not multiple times' in a relatively short time as has been the case, Harris said. 'Modern technology in addition to an attentive public is going to help us recover more and more meteorites.' Analyzing such space rocks is crucial for understanding the possible threat of much larger, more perilous asteroids, Harris added. 'One day there will be an opportunity, and we never know when it's going to be, for something large to hit and create a catastrophic situation,' Harris remarked. 'If we can guard against that, we want to.' With respect to the case seen in McDonough, the meteorite hurtled to the ground at about 12.30pm, emitting a boom and rattling houses across Atlanta, officials said. Images and video of the fiery fireball – reportedly visible from North and South Carolina – spread quickly. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The US's National Weather Service didn't initially recognize what had happened because the fireball resembled lightning on the agency's global lightning mapper, an official said at the time. Yet local emergency management director Ryan Morrison said officials began suspecting a meteorite when it became clear the fireball had punched through a home's roof and cracked through the laminate flooring to the concrete. The affected homeowner requested that the government withhold their identity because they have a small child, Morrison has said.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Stunning footage captures METEORITE slamming into Georgia home
Shocking footage captured the moment a four-billion-year-old meteorite streaked across the skies of Georgia before it slammed into a home. The meteorite punched a hole in a homeowner's roof on June 26 as it hurtled toward the ground faster than the speed of sound, with newly released video showing the rock blazing through the atmosphere. Scientists found that the rock had been burning through space for eons and was older than the Earth itself, dating back 4.56 billion years ago. That is roughly 20 million years older than the Earth. University of Georgia planetary geologist Scott Harris said that he examined 23 grams of meteorite fragments recovered from a piece the size of a cherry tomato that struck a man's roof like a bullet and left a dent in the floor of the home in McDonough, outside Atlanta. 'It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago,' Harris said. 'A lot of people saw the fireball,' he said. 'The homeowner didn't know that they actually had a clean hole through the roof, through an air duct,' he explained. 'They knew about the hole in the roof, but they didn't know it went through the air duct, through one side of the air duct, out the other side of air duct through a couple of feet of insulation, then through the ceiling, then they had about a 10-foot-high ceiling, kind of a slanted frame ceiling, and then it went the distance from there to the floor and left about a centimeter-and-a-half little crater in the floor. 'And so this hit hard enough that part of it just absolutely was pulverized like somebody hitting it with a sledgehammer,' he explained to Fox News. 'These are objects that go back to the original material formed 4.56 billion years ago,' Harris said. 'So, in the days slightly before the formation of the planets themselves, and at least the rocky interior planets. 'And, you know, those are the basic building blocks then of our rocky planets and, so that's one of the reasons that scientists are interested in studying them is it shows us about some of the processes that were active during the early days of the solar system.' Harris said University of Georgia scientists and colleagues at Arizona State University plan to submit their findings with Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. They propose naming the space rock the McDonough Meteorite, reflected the name of the Georgia city where it plunged to Earth. 'No one's got to do anything about a small object like this coming through the atmosphere, but understanding where these materials come from in the solar system and understanding that even the dynamics of the small pieces are important for ultimately understanding where the bigger ones are and what the risks are for us in the future,' Harris said. On the day the meteorite fell to Earth it sparked alarm. Police scanner audio in Spartanburg, South Carolina captured a call from a woman who reported a 'giant ball of fire' falling from the sky. 'I'm not crazy! I just saw a huge ball of fire fall from the sky in East Tennessee around the Cherokee National Forest!' a firefighter wrote on X. 'Anyone else see it? Right around 12:20pm ET. Very cool but a little unnerving given the current times!' While some speculated it could have been a falling aircraft, the firefighter described it as 'like a mini sun falling with a tail of fire.' In Georgia, one resident said they not only saw the object, but heard it pass overhead and felt the ground shake when it hit. They propose naming the space rock the McDonough Meteorite, reflected the name of the Georgia city where it plunged to Earth. 'No one's got to do anything about a small object like this coming through the atmosphere, but understanding where these materials come from in the solar system and understanding that even the dynamics of the small pieces are important for ultimately understanding where the bigger ones are and what the risks are for us in the future,' Harris said. Hundreds of reports of a possible fireball were submitted to the American Meteor Society website from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. 'This was the middle of the day, and it just came out of nowhere,' according to one fireball report on the American Meteor Society from Perry, Georgia. He added that he saw a 'smoke trail that quickly fell apart.' Marc Tozer of Georgia shared on Facebook: 'Stone mountain here and it made a booming sound, house shook with a long rumble. Dogs went crazy.'
CBS News
3 days ago
- Science
- CBS News
Meteorite that ripped through Georgia homeowner's roof is 20 million years older than Earth, scientist says
A meteorite that ripped through the roof of a home in Georgia earlier this summer is older than Earth itself, according to a scientist who examined fragments of the space rock. A mysterious fireball blazed across the sky in broad daylight on June 26, sparking hundreds of siting reports in Georgia and South Carolina. According to NASA, the meteor exploded over Georgia, creating booms heard by residents in the area. University of Georgia planetary geologist Scott Harris said in a press release Friday that he examined 23 grams of meteorite fragments recovered from a piece the size of a cherry tomato that struck a man's roof like a bullet and left a dent in the floor of the home outside Atlanta. "This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough," he said. Examining the fragments under microscopes, Harris concluded the meteorite formed 4.56 billion years ago. That is roughly 20 million years older than the Earth. "It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago," Harris said. The homeowner told Harris he's still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision. Harris said University of Georgia scientists and colleagues at Arizona State University plan to submit their findings to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. They propose naming the space rock the McDonough Meteorite, reflecting the name of the Georgia city where it plunged to Earth. According to the university, this is the 27th meteorite recovered in Georgia and the sixth witnessed fall. "This is something that used to be expected once every few decades and not multiple times within 20 years," Harris said. "Modern technology in addition to an attentive public, is going to help us recover more and more meteorites."
